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A Northeast Side woman is suing a city police detective in federal court, saying he violated her
constitutional rights and has endangered children’s lives by failing to record her reports of
domestic violence and child sexual abuse within a West Side family.

Though Bernadine Kennedy-Kent names detective Joshua Gantt as the only defendant, Columbus is
defending him from what the city argues are “threadbare” arguments made in “a frivolous lawsuit
with no basis in law.”

“This officer was clearly acting in the scope of his employment, and he was acting in good
faith,” said Glenn B. Redick, the city’s chief litigation attorney.

In the most recent filing from the May lawsuit, Redick asked for sanctions yesterday against
Kent and her lawyer, Bob Fitrakis. He said Gantt was served a second copy of Kent’s lawsuit on June
18 at police headquarters by a man who said he was bearing “a gift from grateful citizens from the
East Side of Columbus for his excellent work.”

Inside a gift-wrapped box was another copy of the complaint, Redick said. With it was a note
that read “Consider yourself served. Happy Father’s Day.”

Redick, a lawyer since 1970, said this is the first time he has asked a judge for sanctions
against a legal adversary. “This is just not the way you serve people,” he said. “In my judgment,
it makes a mockery out of the federal court system.”

Kent, 59, said last night that Redick’s motion was a “disgusting” distraction from her suit’s
core allegation: that Columbus police have disregarded her report of the rape and ongoing
mistreatment of children.

Kent said she met the 27-year-old mother at the center of her complaint years ago, when she was
an assistant principal and the woman was a young student at West High School. Kent said she and her
husband, James A. Whitaker Jr., have provided emotional and financial help for the woman and her
four children.

“When she gets lowest in life, she calls on me,” Kent said.

Earlier this year the girls ages 3 and 6 confided that their 8-year-old brother was sexually
molesting them, she said.

Kent called their mother and taped the call. The woman alluded to sexual abuse of her daughters
and admitted that her husband had beaten her and the boy.

“The girls be talking too damn much,” she said in the recording.

Kent and Whitaker sought and were granted temporary emergency custody of the two girls based on
the allegations, but all four children are back with their mother. The woman’s husband, who is
father of her 9-month-old girl, has been arrested on charges that he violated a protection
order.

The woman no longer talks to Kent, who thinks she should be charged with allowing the abuse to
continue.

Kent said she first reported her allegations to Gantt, a detective who investigates physical but
not sexual abuse of children, on Feb. 24.

She followed up on March 3 with a six-page written complaint against the woman and her husband
that included claims of domestic violence, poor parenting and abuse. She noted that the 6-year-old
girl’s twin had died in 2008, after strangling in a car seat in what was ruled an accidental
death.

Kent thought a probe was underway but grew suspicious that it wasn’t when she couldn’t locate a
copy of her report. After she and Fitrakis persisted in their demands for one, Gantt gave them a
report number on April 11.

Fitrakis said that report wasn’t entered into the Police Division’s report system until April 11
and lists an endangering incident dated March 29. It doesn’t reflect any of Kent’s allegations and
is labeled a referral from Children Services.

Messages left for Gantt and his supervisor, Sgt. John Hurst, were not returned. Redick said that
Gantt is a diligent officer who remains on the job.

“Of course we investigate these things, and we follow our procedures and our process,” he said.
Details of any investigation often are kept from the public, including the reporting person, he
said.

Fitrakis received a letter on Monday from Cmdr. Michael Gray of the Special Victims Bureau
saying that Kent’s previously dismissed complaint to internal affairs had been resurrected for
further investigation. Kent said that is promising, but she doubts how seriously her allegations
will be treated.

“These children don’t have a voice,” she said. “They’re only alive by the grace of God, and I’m
telling you, they remain at risk.”